Matt Casebolt will be in charge of "Closures and Mechanisms."

Share this story

Tesla has been on quite the talent search of late. Last year it hired Peter Hochholdinger from Audi to oversee Model 3 production. It also hired Anders Bell—previously of Volvo—to take charge of designing interiors. On Tuesday, we learned that Apple programmer Chris Lattner had left the company Elon Musk once described as the "Tesla Graveyard" to become VP for Autopilot. Well, it turns out he's not the only longtime Apple man to ride whatever it is you'd call the Silicon Valley equivalent of Charon's boat.

Seth Weintraub at 9to5mac has revealed that the electric vehicle maker has also obtained the services of Matt Casebolt, who will assume the role of Senior Director Engineering, Closures and Mechanisms. These are areas where Tesla has previously encountered difficulties; early Model Xs had to have a faulty seat hinge replaced, and the production of the SUV's Falcon Wing doors proved to be quite a headache.

In fact, as Weintraub describes, there's quite the Apple diaspora over at Tesla these days, in part thanks to the former drastically scaling back its own automotive ambitions. While we expect it will take a little time to see the results of Tesla's recruitment strategy, it certainly seems to be looking for talent in encouraging places. The past few years have proven it knows how to engineer the best EV powertrain in the business, and it's not too shabby when it comes to advanced driver assists. If it can achieve those levels of competency in some of the other demands of designing and building cars, its future should be very bright indeed.

I hear Tesla is paying big bucks to get anybody with skills, maybe overpaying ?

*Can* you overpay for good engineers? Tech companies make *absurd* amounts of cash per employee and *good*. experienced engineers are actually hard to find. A million dollars for a senior engineer is still a bargain and few earn anywhere near that.

Jim Keller, behind AMDs K7-8 era and Apples A4 and A5, gone, Chris Lattner, creator of Swift, gone, and now this, these are really top talent guys, it's a wonder Apple didn't offer them some crazy deals to retain them instead of bleed talent. Or maybe they did and the decisions were more emotional, wanting to feel on the verge of something bigger for instance.

These guys already earn fabulous amounts of money. They are not in it because of money, at least not purely. They are in it for expressing innovation, the prestige and sheer challenge of it. Apple probably couldn't offer them an interesting challenge, so they left the company to join someone who is living the motto: "If you are not failing, you aren't innovating hard enough".

I always find it peculiar when self-professed nationalists and Trump-enthusiasts go ape-shit about the lack of American manufacturing, but then want to see Tesla fail.... you know, one of the few American start-ups that actually manufactures in the US.

I assume that the reasoning behind this is that Tesla makes electric cars and electric cars are what people who care for the environment would want. Apparently the idea that anybody may care for the environment is anathema to a certain kind of American "patriot". Because doing so apparently somehow impinges on their liberty.

I hope they don't hire Jony Ive, or we'll get glass-and-aluminum rectangles with rounded corners!

These are exactly the kinds of hires you would expect if they had proven their core technologies and marketability, and are investing into making more refined and interesting designs.

If I were an investor, I'd be very encouraged.

I agree, but would add that those rounded rectangles are precisely what I imagined Tesla should add to its lineup as a short range two seater city car/delivery microvan for the gigantic Asian and European markets. With easy-access doors, of course.

There's a lot of down votes for some pretty funny jokes at Apple's and Tesla's expense. C'mon guys, they're jokes, they're funny, get over it. No need for fanboyism on some decent one-liners.

The "jokes" are are getting pulled out for every single apple related story. The down votes are from people who got the joke long ago and wish this posting the same old crusty yet again would move on or find something fresh.

I totally can imagine people want to feel that rush of exciting new things again, Apple is still doing nice stuff now but Tesla is doing really exciting things. But these people grew at Apple into the professionals they are now. Probably you'll see an exodus at Tesla of people that grew there and got tired of cars cars cars cars and more cars every year slightly better never revolutionary.

"You'll all get one door and like it. If you need more doors, we'll sell you a dongle that adds a multi-door airlock onto the car's outside."

Nah, they will go one further. Remove all of the doors because that way, the car is truly waterproof and doesn't need any rubber seals that can degrade. Plus, the noise, vibration and harshness in the cabin will be dramatically improved - best in the world without a doubt.

Oh you actually want to sit inside the car? Well, in that case, you will need the Apple iWelder. Only $9999. Its a welding drone that will cut a hole in the car for you to get in and out. It will also weld the hole shut again when you are inside.

Bringing up the original macbook air puts a bitter taste in my mouth. I've owned a few mac products and that one was by far the worst and most useless. Even as simple a task as browsing the Internet (it was still capitalized then) was sluggish and opening itunes and mail.app at the same time was an exercise in patience. I'd usually end up pulling out the older c2d macbook pro after 5 or so minutes of trying it again futilely. But it looked nice and was really light, which would have mattered if I could take it anywhere and do something; as I do now with its ultrabook descendants. I hope for Tesla Inc.'s sake that his future work doesn't reflect those kinds of integration problems.

Jim Keller, behind AMDs K7-8 era and Apples A4 and A5, gone, Chris Lattner, creator of Swift, gone, and now this, these are really top talent guys, it's a wonder Apple didn't offer them some crazy deals to retain them instead of bleed talent. Or maybe they did and the decisions were more emotional, wanting to feel on the verge of something bigger for instance.

These guys already earn fabulous amounts of money. They are not in it because of money, at least not purely. They are in it for expressing innovation, the prestige and sheer challenge of it. Apple probably couldn't offer them an interesting challenge, so they left the company to join someone who is living the motto: "If you are not failing, you aren't innovating hard enough".

True. Look at Kellers record for instance. He usually stays for most of the progress of making a new chip, leaves, and then that chip ends up being pretty great. He initially put AMD in a good position chip wise, went "booored", and left, did the same for Apple, which now makes me hopeful since he was there for most of the design of Zen/Ryzen.

Musk referred to Apple as a Tesla graveyard because employees who didn't succeed at Tesla went to Apple. Casebolt wasn't a failure, so the metaphor doesn't really work. Also, using the term "diaspora" to refer to employees going from one company to another made me wrinkle my nose.

There's a lot of down votes for some pretty funny jokes at Apple's and Tesla's expense. C'mon guys, they're jokes, they're funny, get over it. No need for fanboyism on some decent one-liners.

The "jokes" are are getting pulled out for every single apple related story. The down votes are from people who got the joke long ago and wish this posting the same old crusty yet again would move on or find something fresh.

Exactly. Some of the jokes got upvotes because they weren't recycled from the last 100 articles. I am not going to lie, the one about a door airlock made me chuckle a bit. Maybe it is because I am a visual person and just imagined the hillarity of a 3 door airlock bolted to the side of a Tesla Model S cruising down the highway taking up two lanes. Maybe it was just me.

I wonder what security measures Tesla takes to keep their Apple hires away from the battery packs? If you are trying to overcome the stigma of being a short-range vehicle that seems like it would be an important precaution.

If they are now Tesla employees, why would that matter?

And what stigma about what short-range vehicle? Can you please expand - I'm not getting the reference.

Because the maximum range is about 1/2 that of a normal gas-powered car, there are a lot fewer places to "fill it up" than a normal gas-powered car, and it takes a lot longer to "fill up" than a normal gas-powered car?

I can go 400-450 miles in my car, when I went on a trip during the gas shortage I fit about 2.5 extra gallons in the tank after the pump shut off for over 500 mile range. I considered bringing a "jerry can" with 5 gallons that would have given me another 100+ mile reserve.

I wonder what security measures Tesla takes to keep their Apple hires away from the battery packs? If you are trying to overcome the stigma of being a short-range vehicle that seems like it would be an important precaution.

If they are now Tesla employees, why would that matter?

And what stigma about what short-range vehicle? Can you please expand - I'm not getting the reference.

Because the maximum range is about 1/2 that of a normal gas-powered car, there are a lot fewer places to "fill it up" than a normal gas-powered car, and it takes a lot longer to "fill up" than a normal gas-powered car?

I can go 400-450 miles in my car, when I went on a trip during the gas shortage I fit about 2.5 extra gallons in the tank after the pump shut off for over 500 mile range. I considered bringing a "jerry can" with 5 gallons that would have given me another 100+ mile reserve.

Funny. I regularly go on 500 mile trips in my EV, and it works out just fine. Even 1000+ mile trips are good. Of course, if you're a dumbass and don't plan your trip, you're gonna be hurting. Also, I hate driving for more than 2-3 hours at a time, so I like breaks. If you like driving 10+ hours at a time and drive that more than once in a blue moon, congratulations - an EV isn't for you. However, 99% of the rest of the population will be quite happy with it.

"Casebolt's portfolio at Apple includes the original MacBook Air as well as the most recent Mac Pro and MacBook Pro."

Oh Jeez, not the trash can...

He's a hardware engineer, within the overarching decisions over his head that were made, he did some nice work. Whatever you think of the Mac Pro, in terms of PCBs and interconnects it was pretty neat. That part was what he would have done. The decision to make it a harder to upgrade cylinder wasn't him.

Jim Keller, behind AMDs K7-8 era and Apples A4 and A5, gone, Chris Lattner, creator of Swift, gone, and now this, these are really top talent guys, it's a wonder Apple didn't offer them some crazy deals to retain them instead of bleed talent. Or maybe they did and the decisions were more emotional, wanting to feel on the verge of something bigger for instance.

Well there was that Bloomberg report that talked about a lot of the Mac guys leaving or moving to other teams because they were not getting priority. That would really only affect this guy though of the big departures recently.

I imagine for some people musk is the closest thing to working for jobs, which might have some appeal. A guy that is incredibly demanding, ambitious, and has a singular product oriented focus (and not above micro-managing everything).

I imagine at this level that it's not about pay as apple would probably match anything they were offered. So Tesla is clearly doing something right in how they hire.

I wonder what security measures Tesla takes to keep their Apple hires away from the battery packs? If you are trying to overcome the stigma of being a short-range vehicle that seems like it would be an important precaution.

If they are now Tesla employees, why would that matter?

And what stigma about what short-range vehicle? Can you please expand - I'm not getting the reference.

he means the apple hires probably want to make the cars thinner and shave off some battery packs

Interesting, I had assumed that there's a big enough difference between the two industries such that existing expertise and experience in one industry would have limited applicability in the other. I mean, I imagine engineering a device for carrying people around would be in a whole other realm than designing a device that people carry around.

Why so? The principles of fasteners, clamps, locks, hinges, levers, etc. doesn't change just because you scaled it up 10x.

But there's bound to be lots of variables that weren't necessary/present for precision electronics but have profound impact in large scale applications with different usage scenarios. For instance, engineering the battery compartment on a car versus for a laptop, surely the different set of requirements would call for different design approaches, even though the basic principles of clamps and such are the same? On the car, you would probably need a much higher tolerance of shock, change in temperature, and other environmental considerations, therefore the expertise you have in designing laptop batteries isn't going to be of much help here. You'd need additional reinforcement, mitigations and workarounds that might have been a no-brainer for someone who has been in the automobile industry for years, but for someone who spent their past career working on tiny electronics, may not be as apparent.

That's what I had assumed anyway, I don't have any engineering background just a layman in this department.

Interesting, I had assumed that there's a big enough difference between the two industries such that existing expertise and experience in one industry would have limited applicability in the other. I mean, I imagine engineering a device for carrying people around would be in a whole other realm than designing a device that people carry around.

Why so? The principles of fasteners, clamps, locks, hinges, levers, etc. doesn't change just because you scaled it up 10x.

But there's bound to be lots of variables that weren't necessary/present for precision electronics but have profound impact in large scale applications with different usage scenarios. For instance, engineering the battery compartment on a car versus for a laptop, surely the different set of requirements would call for different design approaches, even though the basic principles of clamps and such are the same? On the car, you would probably need a much higher tolerance of shock, change in temperature, and other environmental considerations, therefore the expertise you have in designing laptop batteries isn't going to be of much help here. You'd need additional reinforcement, mitigations and workarounds that might have been a no-brainer for someone who has been in the automobile industry for years, but for someone who spent their past career working on tiny electronics, may not be as apparent.

That's what I had assumed anyway, I don't have any engineering background just a layman in this department.

Any decent engineer would start by looking at requirements. Requirements regarding acceleration, vibration, temperature swings, etc. are pretty well known at this point, and can be easily verified, if needed. Additional requirements such as accessibility, repairability, etc can be determined by working with other engineers, modeling, etc. Specifying materials is not rocket science, either - most of the materials used in manufacturing has well-documented properties and costs.

Once you understand the fundamental physics, math, and materials science behind this kind of engineering, I'm not seeing the big hurdle here, but an opportunity for what seems to be a talented engineer to look at things with fresh eyes. I'm also pretty sure that he NOT the only engineer working at Tesla, and there are people with automotive experience that can do sanity checks and provide input.

Great how will you be able to get in the car after it is redesigned to be 1/2 in thin?

A dongle will be sold separately with a bigger cabin and boot/trunk.

Go ahead and laugh, but that's basically how a Tesla Model S is designed. Here is the chassis, along with batteries and powertrain. This is everything that makes it go and stop; this includes the batteries, motors, etc. The cabin is, pretty much, a "dongle" attached to the top.

Any decent engineer would start by looking at requirements. Requirements regarding acceleration, vibration, temperature swings, etc. are pretty well known at this point, and can be easily verified, if needed. Additional requirements such as accessibility, repairability, etc can be determined by working with other engineers, modeling, etc. Specifying materials is not rocket science, either - most of the materials used in manufacturing has well-documented properties and costs.

Once you understand the fundamental physics, math, and materials science behind this kind of engineering, I'm not seeing the big hurdle here, but an opportunity for what seems to be a talented engineer to look at things with fresh eyes. I'm also pretty sure that he NOT the only engineer working at Tesla, and there are people with automotive experience that can do sanity checks and provide input.

Didn't really expect a reply this late into the comment scene, but thank you for the detailed response and insight. I'm quite sure as you are he's not the ONLY guy doing engineering, I just found it interesting that they hired talent from a different industry. Given what you said and the fact that the poaching happened, it certainly isn't as illogical as I had originally imagined.

Because the maximum range is about 1/2 that of a normal gas-powered car, there are a lot fewer places to "fill it up" than a normal gas-powered car, and it takes a lot longer to "fill up" than a normal gas-powered car?

Nope. Maybe a lot fewer places you can fill it up fast - but hundreds of millions of electrical outlets would work to charge a Tesla. I could charge one in my garage by plugging it into the wall, not by lugging chemically stored power home with me. Overnight fillup? Any RV park. Or dryer outlet. Or thousands of dedicated charging locations. I've been seeing more hotels with them - in Texas.

If I'm not on a long trip (so, like 50+ weeks a year) I'm going to be spending less time "filling up" the Tesla than a gas car. I don't have to GO anywhere to fill it up. I just plug it in when I get home - maybe once a week.